(Request from anon)

So far, so good.  Taehyung and you have been able to keep your secret for a full month now.  Granted you don’t get to go on dates or do things normal couples do, but you’re managing.  The looks he gives you and the little touches here and there are enough for you.

Today is just like any other day; busy as hell.  Everyone is exhausted and it is starting to take its toll.  You’re having to pay extra attention to your work because your hands are starting to shake from the effort.  Therefore you are taking a little bit longer to finish with the members than usual.  Currently working on Namjoon Oppa, you concentrate on steading your hand long enough to conceal away the dark circles that have formed over the past few days.  Namjoon Oppa is awake surprisingly, but totally zoning out.

Once you finally finish with all the members you pack up your stuff and sit on one of the couches in the waiting room.  The members are only appearing on a variety show today, so you only need to be around for touch ups.  You glance at the clock over the door and see that you still have an hour before the filming starts.  All the members are over with the hair stylists, who also seem to be having trouble with staying focused.  You close your eyes and lay your head back, hoping to get a little bit of a nap in before you have to report to set.

You feel the couch dip beside you and at first you ignore it, thinking it to be another staff member.  Then you feel a poking on your forehead.  You open your eyes and sit up to see Taehyung sitting next to you.  During the first week of your relationship, just the sight of him smiling at you was enough to give you energy, however, being as tired as you are now, you feel like it would take a lighting strike to give you the same feeling.

“Hey,” he says smiling at you.

“Hey.”  You try to smile back, but you don’t succeed and just give him a half smile.

“You look tired.”  He brushes the hair out of your face.  Your heart skips a beat at the contact.  You look around the room, making sure no one saw that display of affection.  Everyone seems to be half asleep or concentrating too hard on their own endeavor to notice.

“You think?  What about you?  You must be exhausted.”  You scoot a little closer to him, feeling his leg touch yours.

“I’m am beyond exhausted.  I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up.  But as long as I have you to look at every day, I might just make it.”  Taehyung gives you an endearing smile, gently holding on to your hand.  You smile and sigh.  Did I just swoon? you think to yourself.  I think I just swooned.

You hear the door open and you quickly separate from Taehyung, pull out your phone and try to look occupied.  Taehyung does the same, but closes his eyes pretending he’s asleep.

This is how is it between you two.  Jumping at every sound every time you’re together and praying that no one sees you guys together.  However, you knew it would be like this, so you don’t really complain.  You would do anything to protect Taehyung’s image.

The next day, you are on the set for the new music video.  You managed to get about 5 hours of sleep last night, so you feel energized, well, at least for now.  Back in the waiting room, the manager tells you about what kind of look he wants the members to have for this concept.  This is only the third time he is explaining it to you, so you can’t help but zone out a little bit.

Out of the corner of your eye, you see the female actress that’s going to be in the shoot today.  You catch a quick glance as the manager looks down at his phone for the millionth time.  She’s really pretty, but you expect nothing less; straight black hair, big dark eyes, small face and a great body.  You can’t help but feel a little subconscious about your own appearance looking at her.

“Are you listening to me?” the manager asks, irritated.  You snap your head back to see him giving you a look of annoyance.

“Of course.  You want this look to be very charismatic and grungy.  You want me to make them look like they hang out in junk yards, but still give them a better-than-thou glow to them.  I understand.”  You still have no idea how you are going to do this, but once you start playing around with it, you’ll figure it out.  You always do.

The manager looks you up and down, before giving a little nod and sending you on your way.  You go over to your vanity and start looking through your make up supplies.  You hear the actress laughing over at the hair styling station.  You glance over and see Taehyung standing next to her chair, smiling and laughing along with her.

You feel a stab in your stomach at the sight.  It rushes to your head and you start to feel dizzy.  Why is he talking to her?  Wait, she’s the actress.  She’s going to be shooting scenes with all of the members later.  Of course they would talk.  But why does he have to smile and laugh like that?

You shake the thoughts out of your head and try to focus on your job.  After finally coming up with something to do for the concept, you motion over Jungkook to your chair.  Jungkook stands up and looks over at Taehyung and the girl before sitting in down in front of you.

“They look cute together, don’t they Noona?”  Jungkook gives you a little smile, like he always does when he’s around you.  He’s such a cutie.  You glance over at Taehyung again while loading up your foundation brush.  Taehyung is leaning up against the vanity behind him and playing with the girl’s hair as the stylist tries to curl it a bit.  Taehyung is still wearing the same smile as before and you feel a stab to your lungs now.

“Yeah, I guess,” you say with no emotion.  You focus on Jungkook and start to apply the foundation to his chin.

“Can you believe they are the same age?  Well, I guess they would make you the same age too, huh?”

Same age?  That girl is your age?  You want to turn and give a glare to stop talking to your boyfriend, but you know that is not an option. 

“Really?  Isn’t that a coincidence.”  Again, you show no emotion and try to keep your focus.

“Yeah.  The hyungs and I are trying to set Taehyung up with her.”  You drop the brush, somehow catching it in your other hand and managing to get foundation all over your fingers.  Set up?  You turn around and clean off your hand while Jungkook continues.  “We think they will be perfect for each other.  Plus, she’s about to be in a drama that is sure to be a huge hit.  Think about what kind of popularity Taehyung will have after that if they are going out.”

No, I don’t want to think about it.  You finally go back to Jungkook’s makeup, your head spinning and your heart racing.  Jungkook’s looking at you for some kind of response.

“That’d sounds like a good idea.”  Lie.  “How are you planning on setting them up exactly?”

“We already started.  We told Taehyung a little while ago, that she was feeling nervous about the shoot and that he should go over and cheer her up.  Worked like a charm.”

It sure did, you think, begrudgingly.  The stab in your lungs moves to your heart and you feel the pain in the back of your throat.

It continues to work like a charm too.  As you go through the members one at a time, Taehyung remains by her side, talking and laughing and smiling.  She’s lucky she brought her own makeup artist, you threaten in your mind.

An hour and a half goes by and you run out of members, except for Taehyung.  You’ve watched him follow the actress around like a lost puppy and you are starting to get really angry.  Sure, you started out feeling a little hurt, but when he seemed to be purposely avoiding your eyes, your blood started to boil.

“Taehyung, you’re the last member I need to do,” you call out in the most normal voice you can muster.  Taehyung looks over at you and nods.  Then after saying one more thing to the actress, walks over to your vanity and comes up behind you.

“Hey, Noona.”  He wraps his arms around your waist and gives you a brief hug.  This is nothing new considering he has done it before, but for some reason (the girl) you are very annoyed by the action.  You ignore the touch, not feeling the same thrill you did yesterday.

“Hey Taehyung.”  Again, no emotion.  You can’t seem to feel anything other than anger and you hide that away not wanting to make a scene.  Therefore you are left with nothing to express.

“Are you okay?”

You don’t turn around and start switching out your colors a bit to match Taehyung’s skin tone.  “I’m fine.  Just a little overwhelmed with this concept, I guess.”  Lie. 

“Oh, I see.  It just seemed like you were mad about something.”

No , Sherlock.  “I’m not mad about anything.”  You finally turn to him and start on his makeup.  You avoid looking at his eyes, otherwise he might see through your act.

After a couple minutes of uncomfortable silence, you try being a little direct.  “I see you’ve been talking to the actress a lot today.  She nice?”

“Yeah.  She’s funny too.  The guys told me that she was nervous about the shoot, so I tried to make her feel better.”  You see him smile, but you still avoid eye contact.

“I see.  She’s really pretty.”

“Yeah, she is.”

Oh no!  He did not just say that!  The anger runs to your head and you can feel the steam coming out your ears.  But somehow, there’s a coldness to everything that makes you feel upset.  You think about the way he looked at her, the way he played with her hair and smiled.  He could never do that to you.  Not in front of other people and when were you two ever without other people?  That would be never.  He will never be able to act like that around you.  Not as long as he is an idol and you are a makeup artist.  The impossibility of the relationship comes crashing down on you a two ton anvil.  You feel yourself crushed flat, like that poor coyote in the cartoons.  Only now, you’re not laughing; you’re hurting.

You feel tears starting to burn behind your eyes and you don’t know if you can hold them back.  Your hand starts to shake like crazy and you know you’re going to break down.

“Taehyung, I’ll be right back.  I have to go check on something real quick.”  You put down the brush and walk out the door and down the hall.

Taehyung watches you leave and wonders what was going on with you.  You sure were acting weird today.  He pulls out his phone and waits for your return.  Jimin walks up to him and gives him a punch in the arm.

“So, how’s it going with the girl, Taehyung?”  He says in a knowing voice.

“What?  What girl?”  Taehyung questions.  Namjoon comes up to his other side.

“The actress, dude.  The one you’ve been talking to all day.”  Suddenly, Taehyung was surrounded by the other members, looking at him expectantly.

“Oh.  Well she seems to be okay now.  It doesn’t seem like she’s nervous anymore,” Taehyung says innocently.  Taehyung looked over at the girl and saw her glancing at him and smiling.  Namjoon and Jimin follow his look and smile.

“Oh come on,” Jimin says.  “Don’t tell me that’s all you talked about.  It’s obvious she’s got the hots for you.”

“What?”

“Dude, you should have seen the way she was looking at you.  She was practically begging for you to ask her out.  Don’t say you haven’t asked her out yet,” Hoseok piped in.

“Uhm, no.  Of course not.  That’s not why I was talking to her.  I was just trying to calm her down for the shoot.”  Taehyung looks between all the members, utterly confused at their comments.

“Taehyung, we just said that so you would make the first move.  Did you expect her to come to you first?”  This was Namjoon.

“Wait, are you trying to set me up with her?”  Taehyung finally put two and two together.

“Duh, and by the looks of it, you two are the perfect match.  It’s only a matter of time now.  Your next step should be…”  Taehyung interrupts Jungkook’s plans.

“Are you guys crazy?  Who are you to think that you can just set me up with some random girl I don’t even know?”  Taehyung stands up from the chair, anger running through his veins.  “For your information I have a…”  Taehyung stops.  He comes to the realization that if the members noticed that you two supposed looked perfect for each other, did you?

Taehyung realizes that that was the reason you seemed mad, that’s why your words had no emotion and that’s why you ran out when he said that he thought the actress was…

Taehyung rushes out the door, leaving the members to watch him with confused looks on their faces.  Taehyung runs through the halls, looking for you.  It seems like you have disappeared.  He stops at an intersection of four different hallways and looks down each.

Then he hears a soft sound coming from one of the halls.  He runs down to find you leaning in a doorway, just out of sight.  Tears are pouring from your eyes and your closed throat is making it hard for you to breathe.  You look up to see Taehyung in front of you.  He has a look of concern in his eyes that surprises you.

“Taehyung?” you whisper.

Without saying anything, Taehyung pulls you into his arms and holds you tight.  You are shocked at his actions, but don’t try to fight him off.

After a minute or two, you feel him kiss the top of your head.  “I’m sorry,” he says quietly.  “I didn’t realize what was going on until the guys said something to me.  I didn’t mean to make you mad or upset.”

“Taehyung, I…”  You didn’t know what you were trying to say.  You grip his shirt and hold him tighter, trying to send your message with your mind.

“No, I don’t see anything in her.  You’re the one I want.”  Your heart jumps out of your chest and you pull away to look at him through watery eyes.  Taehyung looks down at you and wipes the tears from your face. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispers again.  He runs his fingers through your hair, looking into your eyes.  Then he leans down and kisses you on the lips and you lose all sense of time and space.  You didn’t have to pretend here, you didn’t need to worry about who might see.  Here, you are his and he is yours.  Here, there is nothing to hide.